Until I was 8 years old, I lived in a country that the police didnt carry guns, women could walk in the streets as late as they wanted with no fear of violence. Besides movies, I had never seen anyone shoot or own a gun beyond a BB gun!

This county was Iran. When the revolution happened, I witnessed the army and police raid peoples homes, rape the woman and girls, kill the men and children, and steal their property. The simple reason, they were against the revolutions or pro-Shah.

It is arguable about which was worse, the Shah or those who started the revolution. But the bottom line was, you had a population that could not defend itself from tyranny. Now the country, no matter how the political system is setup, is nothing more than a dictatorship and a black hole for human rights.

People demonstrate for change, for a better life and a lot for just wanting food on the table, but they are arrested, killed, disappear, gunned down, etc. just for wanting the same things we take for granted here in the U.S.

Could this happen in the USA? Could this happen to us here tomorrow, in our lifetime or in the lifetime of our children? But know that this could happen. It begins by slowly chipping at the document that describes our rights. There are groups out there that have agendas that might take a 13 hundred years to to complete, but the end-game is a dictatorship. Again, dont know if it will happen, but when playing the long game, you just need to get people with the same belief in different parts of government one seat at a time and one day they will have control.

I will defend my right to bear arms against a tyranny foreign, domestic or just a stupid criminal as long as I can, because I have witnessed it first hand and I educate myself in history. Most dictatorships developed from Republics or democracies and usually goes like this:

The head of the government promises the world to the citizens.

Then, asks for emergency power to be able to do what is required and promises this to be temporary.

Starts putting supporters in key positions.

Then, starts slowly controlling information that is distributed to the people.

Then starts taking away more rights disguised as security for the people first by taking away guns.

Once the public is disarmed, they take away more rights and property. Usually, using a minority group as scapegoat.

Next thing you know, even the supporters start feeling the wrath of the new government.

Then one day the citizens wake up and reality hits them, but by then it is too late.

There are two things we have going for us here in the states:

The 2nd amendment - This was written not only to protect us against foreign invaders, but also a government that is no longer of the people and for the people. The side benefit is that I can also protect myself, my property and my loved ones against any person that wants to do harm.

The Armed Forces and Law Enforcement are usually required to give oath to protect the constitution. So if things go to hell in a hand basket, we will probably have a large number of them on our side.

The power of the 2nd amendment is what keeps our other rights safe. If government starts creeping in and taking away rights, we have a chance to at least put up a fight. Just like when it comes to protecting my loved ones and property, I want to at least have a fighting chance.

We dont install an alarm, put up a beware dog sign or install cameras because they guarantee that there wont be a burglary, we install them because it is a deterrent and it lessens the chance of it happening. The 2nd amendment does the same thing, it is a deterrent for the government to watch what it does knowing if they go too far, there is going to be opposition. We will use our other rights first. But if those dont work, we have a final option.

None of this is because I or most people think there is a conspiracy. We just know history of Man, and know how greedy and power hungry it can be!

I started using (and to some extent contributing to) Quora in 2015. It started out pretty good, a little like FR in its early days.

At some point early in 2016 (I think it was around the time that PDJT started to look like he had a shot to actually become the Republican nominee), Quora took a sharp and obvious turn to the left, if only because there suddenly began to show up numerous "questions" that were just thinly-disguised anti-Trump political screeds. Since then, about one-third of the "questions" (all Quora threads must have a title that is expressed in the form of a question) are political, the vast majority obviously from the left-wing perspective. It's a little like a push-poll.

There are some conservatives at Quora, I don't know how many. Certainly a minority. Some are very good (although no better than many of the posters here at FR). I refrain from engaging in political discussions at Quora; I use it to indulge in discussions about science and engineering, which are my main passion in life.

Anyway, this essay by an Iranian at Quora was exceptionally good, and I hope you like it.

By the way, many of the people involved in Quora are from other countries; Indian people in particular are big users.

There are many questions that are obviously typed in directly from homework assignments. They are usually answered very capably.

Because the aliens are ILLEGAL! They are here contrary to the laws of this country and they continue to defy those laws with their presence and actions...

Most US gun owners are law-abiding and some of them don't know or understand when a law passed by a leftist government that is contrary to the US Constitution is an attack on their (our) basic rights. The excuse will be : "It's the law, and you have to register/turn in your guns. If you don't like that, take it up with the government that passed the law."

The enforcers of these illegal laws will use the same excuse the Nazis did at their trials: "I was only following orders!".

If you don’t believe the government wants to do away with private ownership of firearms, you have not been paying attention.
It has designs on us that it cannot attempt while we can still shoot back.
The most basic of these is seizure of 401ks and IRAs for ‘protection’ and redistribution.

No, they don’t need to get rid of guns, all they have to do is pass laws to make their use illegal and thus virtually unusable, even in self-defense.

Then, like in other countries, guns will slowly go away as their utility, risk, and cost to honest people will gradually make it ‘not worth it’.

And then, with relatively few people owning guns, they can come in for the ‘final solution’ and go door-to-door with dogs, if they need to. And don’t worry, they’ll already know who the ‘resisters’ will be and they’ll have them easily outgunned.

As to the Second Amendment - it may still be there, but Leftist judges have made it PERFECTLY CLEAR that it is meaningless to them...so if they get their majority on the bench it is as good as gone. The Second Amendment only helps when conservatives rule the bench, it has no meaning to liberals...just doesn’t exist.

BOTTOM LINE - people need to think VERY HARD before agreeing to any restrictions on guns as that only pushes us that much closer to the point of confiscation being possible.

What you are both missing in these equations is the willpower. The gov't has neither the will, nor actively desires the removal of either of these things. Once they actively desire something, they will have the ability to do it--or at least attempt to do it.

Once they get serious about guns, they will start confiscating them. It may turn into a war, they may go about it slowly enough that war won't actually erupt. I don't know.

I do know, though, that guns, illegals, and drugs are in this country because the gov't wants them here. Chaos, turmoil, and crime demonstrate a need for gov't. They are merely perpetuating that need among the people so that we will not be quite so eager to rebel, and we may not be so eager to resist when they come for our stuff--whatever stuff they may want.

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